Tolstaya, Tatyana
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1951- ) Russian broadcaster, journalist and author, grand-daughter of Alexei Tolstoy; she should not be confused with Tatyana Sukhotina-Tolstaya (1864-1950), daughter of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910); Tolstaya herself is Leo's great-grandniece. She is of sf interest for her first novel, Kys' (2000; trans Jamey Gambrell as The Slynx 2003), a fantasticated Utopia set in a Ruined Earth Russia 200 years hence, where Mutants are savagely oppressed, a nearly insane dictator rules Moscow, and the Slynx – rather like some ogre from Arthurian Britain oozing nescience – haunts the purlieux of the "civilized" world. The protagonist of the tale works as a scribe for the dictator, copying plagiarized manuscripts; his eventual discovery of a secret hoard of books triggers the modestly hopeful conclusion. [JC]
Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya
born Leningrad, USSR [now Saint Petersburg, Russia]: 3 May 1951
works (selected)
- Kys' (Moscow: Podkova: Inostranka, 2000) [binding unknown/]
- The Slynx (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003) [trans by Jamey Gambrell of the above: hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry